No end to Air India’s problems any time soon

New Delhi: Despite announcing walk-in interviews and fresh tie-ups with ground handling agencies, the chaos of Air India entered into its 15th day and likely to continue in coming days. The problem for Air India started from October 31 when they decided to shift arrival of 11 of its domestic flights to the newly built Terminal 3.
The limited airline staff had to manage five terminals: domestic arrival and departure at Terminal 1, international arrival and departure at T3 and domestic arrival at T3. The staff was staggered leading to shortage of hands.
Unmindful of the staff shortage problem, Air India also went ahead and started 15 non-stop flights for international destination from eight cities. From 486 flights in a week from Delhi, Air India has gone up to 770 flights a week.
“The flights were increased as we wanted to make Delhi our hub. Now since there is staff shortage, we have taken interviews of experienced crew so they can be immediately pressed into service after hiring. Till then the problem will remain,” an Air India official said.
In the last 15 days, Air India has operated nearly 1,500 flights from Delhi, of which over 1,000 failed to take off or land on time. The shortage of ground staff led to chaos as passengers found it difficult to trace their baggage.
14/11/10 Faizan Haider/Hindustan Times

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Categories: Air India Nov 2010, Airports Nov 2010